Galway survive Sligo scare

DON’T believe everything you read, starting with this scoreline. There weren’t four points between these teams yesterday. Hell, there weren’t even four inches.

With 70 minutes played, Sligo were neck and neck with a Galway side that had played football four divisions above them all spring and it was the home team tightening the noose.

It was a scenario no-one could have foreseen half an hour into the tie when the favourites were eight points to two up and cruising towards a result akin to Mayo’s against Roscommon last week.

And yet by the time the three minutes of injury time kicked in Sligo were pouring forward in search of a win to match their famous Connacht final success against Galway here two years ago.

Both sides had been reduced to 14 men for the closing exchanges following red cards for Neil Ewing and Gary O’Donnell, but it was Liam Sammon’s men who were in rag order.

Every single Galway player had migrated back into their own half towards the finish, such was the tide they faced, but then they broke upfield and within seconds Joe Bergin kicked a point.

The killer blow was hot on its heels: Jonathan Davey, one of Sligo’s best players, was mugged from the short kick-out and the ball was fed into an unmarked Sean Armstrong.

It was meat and drink to the corner-forward. The net bulged and thousands of hearts sagged. Like the Lions in South Africa the day before, here was evidence that sport can be a cruel, cruel theatre.

Galway will be having nightmares about Markievicz Park after two harrowing experiences here in recent times. They might have won on this occasion but there are still questions to be answered.

The Tribe’s midfield has been identified as a weak point for some time now and though Paul Conroy battled manfully, there was further evidence of that weakness here.

The problem goes beyond the middle two. Galway have some fine footballers in the middle third but have they enough dogs of war for a street scrap? It seems not.

It was, nonetheless, a staggering display from Sligo given the very different worlds the two counties have inhabited since their last meeting in that 2007 provincial decider.

Last year Sligo were relegated, dethroned and lost to London in the Tommy Murphy Cup. The last of those ties was played around the time Galway and Kerry were contesting the summer’s best game.

Sligo were slow to start and that was no surprise. The Yeats county was the last team to get a run in this year’s football championship, a full nine weeks after their last competitive fixture. They weren’t helped by the movement of Galway’s full-forward line, who played musical chairs in the first half and capitalised on the bemusement it caused in the home defence.

Páraic Joyce was the ring-master in that opening half hour, scoring twice and pulling the strings for others.

Gareth Bradshaw and Armstrong almost sniffed out a couple of goals to boot. It was all too easy but suddenly the game turned and it was hard to pinpoint why.

Eamonn O’Hara’s departure from the square and arrival in the engine room undoubtedly helped but there was little doubt that Galway had eased off on the gas too. Whatever the reason, the results were clear to see. Mark Breheny kicked over two quickfire efforts and suddenly Sligo began to win the breaks and move forward in waves.

Their next two points arrived courtesy of roving defenders and the unlikeliest of comebacks began to materialise before unbelieving eyes after the interval.

They were level by the 44th minute after two Sligo efforts from dead balls but even then there were signs of the shortcomings that would strangle their ambitions at the death.

Their first wide of the game didn’t arrive until five minutes into the second half but they trundled along, regular as clockwork, for the rest of the afternoon.

A superb Adrian Faherty save from Kenneth Sweeney was equally crucial in stemming the uprising but the stakes were rising and that pressure began to tell.

Sligo centre-back Neil Ewing was the first to see red for a second yellow midway through the half but his loss was negated in a flash when he was followed by Galway midfielder Gary O’Donnell.

Twice thereafter Galway made a burst for the tape with a pair of points but Sligo reeled them back in both times before that last one-two combination in injury-time.

The win for Galway then but all credit goes to Sligo.

Scorers for Galway: S Armstrong 1-3; M Meehan 0-4 (2f); P Joyce 0-3; G Bradshaw, C Bane (1f), J Bergin 0-1 each.

Scorers for Sligo: D Kelly 0-4 (2f), M Breheny 0-2 (1f), A Marren 0-2 (2f), R Donovan, J Davey, S Davey, S Coen 0-1 each.

Galway subs: JJ Greaney for Clancy, 16; N Coleman for Greaney, 35; G Sice for D Meehan, 44; B Cullinane for Hanley, 61.

Sligo subs: K Sweeney for S Davey, 32; P McGovern for Harrison, 35; S Coen for Marren 52.